Apple makes history: iPhone flies to the moon
Four astronauts are on their way to the moon with the Artemis II mission. And what do you take with you on such a historic journey? Your iPhone of course!
Taking iPhones to the moon
After 53 long years, humanity is finally returning to the moon. NASA’s Artemis II mission, launched on the night of April 2, will fly a wide arc around our only natural satellite on April 6. On board are astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen. During the mission, the foursome will be further away from Earth than even the Apollo astronauts have ever been. And what does the modern 21st century astronaut take with him on such a historic mission? His iPhone, of course!
For the first time in space travel
Taking your iPhone with you may sound obvious, but Artemis II has a first in this regard. In the past, NASA has always had strict requirements regarding which devices were and were not allowed to fly on space missions. Even during the missions to the International Space Station, which can almost be called routine, these requirements remained intact. This made taking your own iPhone, iPad or MacBook unthinkable. However, NASA boss Jared Isaacman, who was sworn in at the end of December, has now significantly overhauled and streamlined the approval process. This instantly makes it possible for astronauts to take their personal iPhone with them – and the Artemis II mission team immediately benefits from this.
iPhone photos of the moon
So in addition to the usual NASA photos, which are shot with top-of-the-line Nikon cameras, expect to see many images taken with an iPhone. An iPhone panorama of the far side of the moon? Or a moon selfie? Who knows! In the video below we can already see that a silver iPhone 17 Pro is floating through the module while taking photos: The Artemis crew tossing around their iPhones, floating in zero gravity 😂 pic.twitter.com/mjghv2fz1I
— Owen Sparks (@OwenSparks) April 2, 2026
However, the astronauts will have to wait a while before uploading the snapshots to iCloud: the Orion capsule that will travel to the moon does have working WiFi, but no internet connection (yet). We will probably only see the iPhone snapshots taken along the way after Artemis II returns to Earth on April 11.